Our mission is to sustain a discussion on the glorious and dubious aspects of contemporary American life. The glorious include records, books, sports, academics, and politics. Of course, all of those things are also among the dubious. The devil, as they say, is in the details. If you think that the dubious are glorious or that the glorious are dubious, tell us why. And by all means, please provide a warrant for your claims. We may attempt to do likewise.
WHO WE ARE
I.G. is a doctoral candidate in education at a pacific northwest institution of higher learning that receives more federal R&D dollars each year than the annual operating budget of the local urban public school system ...at least 125 million dollars more. When not thinking about why everyone in education insists on calling what they do "critical" this or "critical" that, he spends his time romanticizing his old punk rock band The Goodie Goodies, and wondering how on earth his white (though Jewish) ass received an M.A. in Afro-American studies.
J.R. is a lawyer living at the three-way intersection of the Midwest, the south, and the Great Plains. He currently clerks for a state court judge, and previously clerked for a federal judge. Between clerkships, J.R. worked in the trial department of a large law firm in Chicago. Despite his misgivings, it wasn’t that bad…at first. His prior accomplishments include: representing death-sentenced inmates in Alabama, Texas, Georgia, and New York; developing a crush on Attorney General Janet Reno while working at the Justice Department; laughing his way to a juris doctorate cum laude; charting the difference between Debarge and El Debarge; and overstating the significance of the Million Man March in an honors thesis in American Cultural Studies.
We are both from Oregon and, although neither of us live there (nor are we hippies), we both love it... perhaps because we had the good fortune to leave the state before it became renowned as white hipster paradise (though we do like some of their white hipster music). We are unapologetic Portland Trailblazer fans, for better (1988-1992) or for worse (2002-2006). We love vinyl, though we recognize that hip hop (which J.R. prefers to call rap) can be pretty damn sweet on cassette or CD. And, we are of the left.
WHAT IS GLORIOUS? WHAT IS DUBIOUS?
Although we intend to provide more in-depth commentary in this space, we will begin with a list.
THE GLORIOUS
Ella Baker
Blue Note Records
Boise State Broncos, 2007 Fiesta Bowl Champions
The Clash
Eugene Debs
Gator Bait
March Madness
Miller's Crossing
New York Pizza
Oregon Ducks
Portland Trailblazers
Public Enemy
Otis Redding
Utopian visions
THE DUBIOUS
Chiefs Wahoo and Illiniwek
Boston Celtics, Pops, and Red Sox
The Dave Matthews Band
DC Talk
Death Penalty
The Democratic Leadership Council
All college and university sports teams in the state of Florida (with
the possible exception of HBCUs)
Hipsters
"Informer" by Snow
Lima Beans
Neo-liberalism
No Child Left Behind
Poetic Justice
White Supremacy
We are glorious.
We are dubious.
-J.R. & I.G.
